The High Line in New York

The High Line in New York

The High Line elevated railway in New York - disused since 1980 - is now being rebuilt as a mile-and-a-half long public park. See the line as it used to be and in its new incarnation as a serene platform from which to view the city. Captions by
Paul Owen

Tuesday 18 November 2008 12.07 EST
First published on Tuesday 18 November 2008 12.07 EST

Before the High Line was built in the early 1930s, the railway tracks down the middle of New York's 10th Avenue were so dangerous the road was nicknamed 'Death Avenue'. This picture shows the so-called 'West Side Cowboy', whose job it was to ride in front of the trains waving a red flag to keep pedestrians from being run over

Friends of the High Line was formed in 1999 to save the tracks and transform them into a 'park in the sky'. In 2000 the group commissioned Joel Sternfield to take a series of pictures of the wilderness that had grown up there since the route fell into disuse

Alan Weisman describes the scene in his recent book The World Without Us: 'Since trains stopped running there in 1980, the inevitable ailanthus trees have been joined by a thickening ground cover of onion grass and fuzzy lamb’s ear, accented by strands of goldenrod. In some places, the track emerges from the second storeys of warehouses it once serviced into elevated lanes of wild crocuses, irises, evening primrose, asters, and Queen Anne’s lace'

Joshua David, one of the founders of Friends of the High Line, remembers his first visit to the disused tracks: 'It was extremely exciting. We went up through one of the old factory buildings. I remember stepping out on to the tracks, and there’s an incredible 13-block-long stretch immediately: this incredible vista of wild grasses and flowers. It took my breath away'

How the High Line will look: this picture shows a straight walkway running alongside the railway tracks, surrounded by a landscape of native species that once grew spontaneously on the line and new species that ensure bloom throughout the growing season

Photograph: Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Courtesy of the City of New York

The first phase of the project should be finished next spring. Here stairs rise from the 14th Street pavement, supplemented by an elevator, bringing visitors up between the High Line's massive steel beams, while their legs and feet can be seen from the street below

Photograph: Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Courtesy of the City of New York

This picture shows the corner of Gansevoort Street and Washington Street in the Meatpacking District, the High Line's southern terminus. This will be the site of a major access point and street-level plaza

Photograph: Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Courtesy of the City of New York

This picture shows the point where the High Line's only lawn 'peels up' at 23rd Street, where the line widens, providing crosstown views of the Manhattan skyline and the Hudson river. There will also be a stepped seating area here

Photograph: Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Courtesy of the City of New York